Red Sun Rising
by Nusaka
Summary: A red sun rising has always meant a bad omen for the Hyuuga Clan, and it cannot be coincidence that Hinata and Gaara met on a red sun. Hyuuga centric companion piece to DB
1. Hanabi

**Red Sun Rising**

_**Part One**_

_**Hanabi**_

Summary: A red sun rising has always meant a bad omen for the Hyuuga Clan, and it cannot be coincidence that Hinata and Gaara met on a red sun. Hyuuga centric companion piece to DB.

_It was on the blood red sun that she met him and where she would meet her final fate._

Hanabi looked at her sister out of the corner of a discreet eye. It was dinnertime in the Hyuuga household and Hinata had received her latest mission from the Hokage, passed from Naruto who she'd explained was going training with the legendary sannin; Jiraiya. She'd said that they were going to find a replacement for her teammates and that she'd met the one she was going to 'take care of'. Hanabi had watched Hiashi's eyes widen when he took in the countenance of his eldest daughter and shaken, Hanabi studied his reaction. He was seeing something that she wasn't. Something plausible, so solid within the air that even her genius cousin Neji was staring at Hinata with something queer in his unnatural gaze.

They could sense something squirming beneath the surface like an animal in water trapped beneath thick sheets of ice.

After some time had passed, Hanabi could see it as well. Hinata's Byakugan had gotten slightly stronger, her hits in their spars meant to hurt and burn. She wasn't as gentle as she used to be and it frightened Hanabi slightly. Only slightly. Frightened her slightly to watch her sister's usually kind and soft eyes harden and sharpen like a hawk calling out a battle cry. Frightened her a little when she watched her sister charge at her father during their spars with one hand out, spitting up blood when his hits connected with her and watch the fury pulse beneath the surface, blending with the furious glare of the Byakugan.

More time had been spent with the boy and Hiashi had her removed from the household, saying it would make her stronger and more durable.

_But you can't hide anything from Byakugan eyes, the eyes of ghosts who had long since passed away from the earth. They saw too much, knew too much and for all their knowledge were silent because they believed in destiny_.

Hanabi had watched her sister's wide eyes travel from the stern council to her firm father, disbelief in her glance. She watched her father look away from Hinata's eyes slightly, pained as though he was seeing something – not the new emotions that leaked from her now like a poison, but seeing something not from now but from far from now; his own daughter's future.

Hanabi looked at her sister hard, trying to read what Hiashi and Neji could and she saw it when her sister's eyes met hers. Perhaps not her future, or her death or the rest of her life…but her destiny as her father would explain it. _"Our eyes are able to see in the soul and decipher in ways what their destiny is."_

She saw red hair and green eyes, a red love tattoo and a rising giant behind those mysterious features wrapped in chains. It faced her and grinned, canines smiling and the chains were on her sister, crushing her and bleeding her like a sacrificial pig. The chains on the beast led to the features which mutated into the fierce face of a boy, and from him it went to Hinata. They were all being crushed.

Hanabi fell from her seated position and onto the floor, feeling nauseous. She held a hand to her mouth. Hinata, Hiashi and Neji were around her and she too, like her cousin and father couldn't meet her sister's concerned gaze.

Even thereafter, Hinata still came to the Hyuuga compound to train accordance to her father. Days after Hanabi had talked to Neji and his teammates of this person Hinata was caring for.

"_He's not a person – he's a monster…he almost killed Lee." _

"_He was incredibly strong…and a different fire burned in him – not of youth but it was something old – it wasn't angry but…it wanted to see death and so did he. His name…is Sabaku no Gaara." _

"_He is the one who fought and lost against Naruto. The idiot says he's changed but I still see the same boy who almost killed my teammate. All he's doing is reigning in his bloodlust. Even Hinata-sama sees that."_

Hanabi bit her lip as she thought back to the team's cryptic words. If Hinata knew what he was, could see it with her eyes and it was so tangible then why was she staying? Pride? Concern for him? She didn't want him to be executed as the Kazekage had claimed – from what her father told her? Why?

She had taken over Hinata's position on Team Eight and she found them tolerable in their own ways. They worried for Hinata, who had broken off ties to them slowly withdrawing and keeping away from people entirely. She'd become the leash for Gaara and in turn had become his shadow. Gaara went nowhere without her and vice versa. Hanabi knew she wouldn't disregard her teammates without reason, '_What are you doing?_'

They were going to the Lightning country and Hanabi watched her sister as she told them this – they would be going after the festival. Her eyes turned to them and Hanabi looked away; she could still see the chains on her sister.

The next day she was gone, far away and Hanabi went to her room, climbing the stairs slowly, body detached from her mind. She passed Hinata's old room and stopped. The feeling of a ghost living in their house wouldn't go away, ever since she'd been assigned to that 'demon' boy. It bothered Hanabi to no extent that while her sister was still alive that her ghost would find it fit to haunt them early on. Hanabi turned to the door and with slightly trembling cold fingers slid the paper door open.

Her breathing was ragged as she stepped into the room, feeling something in her chest rise. Nothing was touched and she saw something out of the corner of her eye, moving within the mirror. Hanabi noticed as she moved closer to the vanity mirror, that it had been shattered, broken bits lying dead on the desk.

_They saw too much._

She leaned in close to the shattered glass and there were parts that had not been shattered into small pieces, larger pieces intact. What looked to be scratches of angry nails lay across the larger pieces. In the reflection of one, light shining on it and creating a glare, Hanabi turned to it and stared at her sister's face. She screamed and fell back. Hinata was not in the room or even on the grounds of the Hyuuga compound.

She turned to the door and saw that it had been shut securely, probably masking her small shriek. She gulped in large amounts of air and calmed herself while she stood. She looked over at the shard of glass and saw no reflection. Nothing. She scurried hurriedly to the door, opened it and slid out of her sister's room.

Even still, Hanabi always felt the chill of her still alive sister's ghost wandering the halls, hovering around her father who now had lines under his eyes from lack of sleep. Neji was absent from the house as often as possible and when he was, he would constantly look at a corner and Hanabi knew, she knew – her sister was watching Neji as well. Hanabi herself couldn't look at her herself in any of the house mirrors, always seeing her sister behind her, always seeing those eyes. Those eyes…

The eyes of a ghost which shouldn't exist.

-

Some of you may think that this was in fact pointless, but contrary to the madness that is me, if you hadn't realized it – it shows a different look on the Hyuuga's family relationships. If you can at least read that much from this confusing start – kudos. Review if you have no idea what's going on and I'll be able to explain as best as I can, or review if you understand it or liked it or disliked it.


	2. Neji

**Red Sun Rising**

_**Part Two**_

_**Neji**_

**_Warnings: Minor spoilers for DB if you squint._**

_It was on the blood red sun that her destiny had been decided and where the guillotine blade shined._

Neji cast a look at Hiashi, his pale eyes staring at his uncle who had been more subdued as of late ever since Hinata had left for the Lightning country with that boy. The one who had nearly killed Lee and almost ruined Konoha – _that_ boy. Wiping it from his memory, smudging out charcoal with a white napkin, he continued to observe the once great, now defeated looking lion that was the head of the Hyuuga Clan. Hiashi hadn't been able to sleep at night, instead taking it upon himself to sort through more paperwork and read old scrolls that had collected dust over time.

Neji knew why, though, why his uncle was this way. Hinata – his eldest daughter had practically been surrendered to the demon boy who Hiashi thought would make her stronger, durable and not fragile, so she would be of better spirits within the high stakes of the Clan. She had become stronger with her stay and 'caring' for the Jinchuriki…but she'd also changed. Her hits in spars had been aimed to hurt and burn, scar flesh with red dots, her Byakugan fiercer and angrier. She herself had been angrier, but at the same time she looked like she was suffocating. Dying a little each time he watched anger rise up in her.

The flame the demon boy had given her was sucking all the air from her and leaving but small shreds of the old Hinata. He supposed that had been bothering Hiashi, that he had done this but hadn't stopped it – it had been her destiny.

However, like his uncle, he hadn't been able to meet Hinata's eyes, to see what had happened to her, to see whatever mutations she was going through and certainly not see what lay before her. He'd seen it once, chains shackled to her and a dungeon with no key that she was trapped in. He could see the gold eyes behind her and he also saw that redhead in front of the cage that held the both of them till death. He saw no escape for his cousin and unfortunate as it was, he saw her future as well.

Things were blurred, blood and grins that flashed teeth, nightmares and the feeling of an oppressive thing that pressed down with so much force upon them. Neji shook off the feeling and instead bowed to Hiashi, "Hiashi-sama," he interrupted, the crinkled of an old scroll could be heard. Hiashi was looking over at him. He looked up at his uncle, noting the shallow cheeks bones, the sunk in eyes and the bags beneath them. Neji kept his gaze trained on the Hyuuga head and not to tempt a glance over at a corner where he saw a lock of blue hair move. "The Council wishes a meeting with you immediately; it's about the marriage proposal from the Nagayoki Clan." He spoke quickly, feeling goose bumps pimple his arms.

_The whisper of a ghost's breath touched his ear and he was forced to listen to her silent screams. _

Hiashi nodded and stood, leaving the room and scroll behind and with him, seemingly all warmth fled from the room as well. Neji shivered at icy temperature within the room and he breathed out, eyes widening when a puff of a white cloud rolled from his mouth. He closed his eyes and turned, reaching for the door. Something ghosted across his hair.

_Fingertips, "Neji-niisan your hair's so pretty!" she crooned while baby fingers played with his long hair, a lisp in her words because of the missing front tooth._

He squeezed his eyes tightly and turned, to a corner to see blank eyes staring back. Trembling, a hand reached out to him, shackles binding her and tightening around her – he watched blood drip from the thin lines of the iron shackles around her wrists. Kanji formed over her thin collar bone, drawn from fresh blood, scraping white flesh; _death_. The door slid open and Neji fled from the room quickly shutting the door behind him and leaning against the sturdy frame, panting. He gulped once and regained composure before using long efficient strides to race from the house full of ghosts that shouldn't be there.

He'd made it to the gardens, used for training and he rotated his shoulders, trying to chase away the tension that stood its ground stubbornly. He took in a single breath before flying into fluid motions of quick hand jabs, blocks and firm feet stances for defense or offense. The Byakugan flickered and he felt secure once more, nothing got past the Byakugan. He was too old to believe in ghosts – but he believed in what he saw. What he saw…

His left hand jabbed and he cocked his elbow to move under it so it could be used as a blockade. His feet danced easily over the soft grass, spinning and digging in. His hair flew behind him in its customary low pony tail and he spun again, hands jabbing at the weak points of an invisible enemy. Something tugged his hair.

_He was forced to listen to her silent screams. _

It sounded like birds crying out, ravens cawing and squawking at alarm of an enemy they couldn't beat nor would want to. They were around him then, the ravens which spoke of death and with prettily groomed feathers hid their arched beaks. Thousands of snapping beaks, snipping at his flesh, eating red meat, turning their coal black plume a shining color in the blood red sun. They cawed, "We see you! We see you! We see you, Hyuuga and look at us! Look and you will see it!" behind the ravens always followed death, the ravens were forever the pets of death. A bony hand of a skeletal creature reaching out and a raven landed on a single finger, it had something betwixt its beak and he saw it move, squirm. A white eye stared back.

They were all crying again and the sound warped to a girl's shriek. "Look at me!"

Neji felt his eyes roll, the Byakugan flash and he slumped to the ground, the cry of ravens in his mind, the scream of a girl who could not be saved.

Panting he looked up at the sun, making sure it wasn't red and that there were no ravens and no white eye. Something cold whispered over his sweating face after his nightmarish vision. He closed his eyes and welcomed it, like a cold cloth over the heated face of a feverish person. The sound of another person breathing reached his ears and he shuddered before shakily getting up. There was no escape after all.

The heat of the garden came back, humid and sweltering. He sighed and looked behind him, seeing nothing and he closed the garden door behind him, exiting and leaving the Hyuuga household, coming upon the gates. His sandals crunched over dirt and he nodded to the guards who nodded back and opened the door for him. He stepped through the large gates, hearing the shut soundly behind him and he looked in front of him. He had other places to train, he thought while he walked from the house. There were other places to go. Wind played with his hair and tugged on it queerly.

Fingertips through his hair and a baby face smiled at him, missing a tooth.

-

For those who have begun to grasp what exactly is happening within the Hyuuga family, congratulations because what is within, is a little between the lines. This will probably remain a two shot unless you'd like me to add one last one that will help you understand these last two. Have a nice day.


	3. Hiashi

**Red Sun Rising**

_**Part Three**_

_**Hiashi**_

_**Warnings: Minor spoilers for DB if you squint.**_

_It was preordained on the blood red sun that for her to rise to greatness…she had to fall._

It was the whisper of regret that kept him awake at night, along with the ghost eyes that appeared behind his closed lids. Bloodied rings around those pale eyes that had before only held weakness now held a tiring strength, like an overworked ox in the hot fields. He watched his pale, weak and rather useless daughter rise to take what strength could be gained from this opportunity. He'd been proud, but after seeing his daughter come home limping, broken and avoiding her family…the pride crumbled. She was still so weak.

Days later, he saw fire in her eyes, like all the other Hyuuga but it wasn't bright, it was dim and looked as though it shouldn't have been there…she looked wrong. Someone took his daughter away and placed a doll who knew no loyalties but to one. He feared it when he announced the family engagement and rather than seeing resignation, he saw something dark and unwelcome flourish in her eyes. The fire was there, roaring at him impudently and it looked dead all at once – a dying Phoenix with no hope for a next resurrection. He watched the anarchy blossom in her eyes like a summer cherry flower. He expected her to nod, not watch him with such a stone face, a neutral face that gave away nothing but a small tilt of her lips which had no place on his daughter's lips – not on Hinata's. Who took his daughter?

He watched her train with Neji or Hanabi, not yet ready to teach her himself. He watched her hits at first, aiming to maim, hurt – make wounds and cause bleeding. He watched her fall but get back up immediately, dive and show him moves he never saw her use, watched her get angry at them. When he began to spar with her, he felt the suppressed power begin to leak through, trickle through like a stream once covered by rocks. The dam was breaking and Hiashi needed to push her a little more over the edge, release the built up power. Just a small push.

The mission with the Kazekage's brat had him the slightest bit worried when she told them, a wizened look only she could have now. She was gone the next day, to the Lightning country with the redhead who scowled at all around her, sending each other signals through eye contact.

He had watched his daughter fall many times, and naturally it had made him overprotective the only way a Clan head could be. A bellowing bull was more charming but he needed to toughen her so she wouldn't be eaten alive…

Tilt of her lip (_there's an imp within the curve of lips_), the elaborate painting of a Phoenix without a shadow of hope for another rising day (_smooth talking boy, what have you done to her?_) where was his daughter?

When he fell asleep, he felt the small curled up body pressed against his, the product of his over protectiveness was now haunting him. "I'll make you strong, Hinata, even if I have to break you." The small child merely looked up at him with adoring eyes – it pained him. Such a sweet little thing had to be strong. In the middle of the night, he listened to the ghost of his still living daughter breathe peacefully next to him, taking comfort in his presence he supposed. A child's hand which was actually a young teenager's was curled transparently around his hand. She used to sneak into his room and sleep against him because she felt safer. Like any attention craving daughter, she looked at him with only adoration and love…

His eyes looked over the scroll in front on him, scanning quickly and he looked up at the Council in front of him. "What is this?" he asked the Elders all of who looked amongst each other and nodded, murmuring.

"The Nagayoki are requesting a change in the contract…only a slight change, Hiashi-sama…" he listened to them, listened to their age old words sharpened with aged knowledge of the Clan. He also listened to the breath against his neck, causing him to shiver unconsciously and he shook his head negatively when one of the Elders asked if there was something wrong. He felt breath on his neck, smelt blood around him and heard the clanks of chains – something Neji had said he'd 'seen' on 'Hinata'-sama. Hiashi knew that while he claimed he no longer believed in destiny, the fact of engraved superstition would always leave its scar. Hiashi knew destiny existed, how else could he see bits of the course of their future life? It was not a matter of hocus pocus – it was foretold within the gods' eyes and minds. Man molded from clay in their hands.

Words exchanged only once with the demon he had given his much too weak daughter and there was a warning that foretold the finale of the show. "_You gave her away_." The rest…was unspoken and for a moment Hiashi had almost wanted to hide his daughter. Only for a moment. It would make her strong, the boy would make her grow up and strength like a true Hyuuga would flow through like a stream without rocks blocking the pathways. Once she was gone though, the words took on a different meaning that instead of giving her away to the mission…they had given her away to him instead. Malicious intent lingered more so than before, like a dark cloud reaching out from the south, casting shadows over the once sunny land.

But she would handle whatever he came at her with, she would take the blows and fight back, she would become strong, she had to, she had to. She was a Hyuuga and it was her own fault for being such a weak link that her father was torturing himself with these visions that refused to die. She would adapt for the Hyuuga family (_you lie to yourself that she will adapt for all of_ you), she will become a true heiress and…worthy of it.

It was long after the meeting with the Elders and looking over the Nagayoki's request for a slight change in the marriage contract that Hiashi wandered the halls, reading a scroll. The ancient words of the cursed tailed demons which once roamed the earth without prohibition. His eyes traced over each curve of all the written language before him twice, committing it to memory and storing it away for later use and knowledge. There was a tug on his clothes, and he ignored it, the tug became a little more insistent. A whisper reached his ears and he activated the Byakugan out of old habit. With ever seeing eyes that saw too much of the world, he saw drops of blood leaking from the walls of the empty halls, nail markings clawing the once immaculate wood.

The corridor's end stretched on forever, lengthening as though it would never end. The Byakugan was deactivated and Hiashi blinked sternly, chasing away the wraiths from his mind. His lack of sleep must be getting to him, must be making the shadows to move and writhe, hear twisted whispers and eleventh hour warnings…see torturous blood leak from the walls in which his daughter used to live between.

Hiashi sat down at his desk, tired and much too exhausted to notice a servant carrying pieces of broken glass with small smears of blood on them, to hear her say, "I honestly don't know what got into Hanabi-sama,", to weary to notice that everyone was saying Neji was hardly ever at home, gone somewhere far from it for as long as possible. His eyes slowly slipped shut while he continued reading his text. A brush of cold air kissed his cheek gently.

A small girl with short boyish hair smiled charmingly, shyly while she held out a flower crown for her father. A large hand took it tenderly, a rare form of affection and the girl pecked him soundly on his cheek when he was close enough, stunning him.

There was a field of blinding white daises, soaking up sunshine in the afternoon and Hiashi took in a comforted air from the peaceful day. He heard a rumble in the distance, but ignored it mildly for the tranquility of the day in the field of flowers. The rumble grew louder and shadows cast over him, causing him to look up and see only a dark cloud that covered the expanse of the blue sky and sun. White petals floated around him when a strong gust of wind kicked up, they danced around him. The field of daises slowly diminished and petals continued to break away from their flowers, their stems withering away and blackening. Thunder from above rumbled once more like a hungry stomach, and rain started to fall.

Despite the wet falling from the sky, Hiashi watched as the field blackened as though a fire had ghosted all around it – the once tranquil day was now ashen, an unmarked cemetery for the thousands of tiny bodies which belonged to the daises, the petals that floated around him caught alit and burned away into the wind. He could smell the sickeningly sweet scent of the burnt flowers swirling around him. The thunder roared.

Hiashi's eyes snapped open and he sat up right once more, gazing intently at his surroundings. There was no field, no ruined perfect day, no dark cloud that brought upon with it destruction. Something electric and white hot looking crackled and lit the room, thunder growling in the distance and he turned to look out a window, rain pattering against the glass. Calming himself, he collected his scroll to read peacefully in the library, sliding open the door and listening to the thunder break once more.

He smelled the acrid scent of burnt flowers lingering on his clothes.

-

Fin.

'Red Sun Rising' is finished and I hope you understand somewhat of what is happening not only to Hinata and Gaara, but also how they affect others. If you have any inkling of what is happening, right or wrong, I'd like to hear it. Thank you for reading and for all your reviews!


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